Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Robert Anton Wilson Cosmic Meme-Orial

Join Together at the Robert Anton Wilson Cosmic Meme-Orial& Lasagna Levitation Celebration!

Hail Eris! All Hail Bob!

Celebrate the life, work and continued multi-dimensionality of Robert Anton Wilson by joining us in a giant, jammin' Translation Celebration and 8th Circuit Soiree!

. Reconnect with old friends. Make new, like-minded friends. Share ideas. Exchange email addresses. (It's like the Internet, only in person.). Be a part of Bob's Raucous Processionary Send-Off as his ashes sail out of the cove and rejoin his beloved's in the Pacific!. Watch continuous video clips of RAW from "Maybe Logic" documentary and from his numerous Trajectories videos.. Expand your mind (and your tummy) with hors d'ourvres, soft drinks, and a cash bar.. Expand your neighbors' minds by sharing remembrances and anecdotes at the open mic! (Brevity and levity are appreciated!). Mingle, nosh, remember, appreciate, celebrate!. And above all, Keep the Lasagna Flying!

Q: How can I help kick out the jams?A: Contribute to the media presentation. Forward photos of Bob or other creative visual remembrances that relate to RAW and his work. Your images will be included in a projected media presentation for all to enjoy. Please email your .jpegs (300-600 dpi) to trichster@aol.com no later than February 11th. Please consider contributing even if you can't be there in person.

Q: Is it always sunny in California?A: Not in February, Chester. It's winter, and it can get DANG cold at the ocean. If you plan to play outside, dress for CHILLY weather and you will be fine and toasty.

Q: I'm coming from a long way away. Can I crash at your place?A: Umm... not really. Click here to search for lodging in Santa Cruz County: www.santacruzcounty.travel

Q: I'm sorry...I spaced. Where did you say this was again?A: The Cocoanut Grove is a famous ballroom attached to the Santa Cruz, CA, Beach Boardwalk (which is celebrating its centennial this year). Boardwalk arcades and amusement park rides (including the Giant Dipper, regularly voted one of America's Top 10 Rollercoasters) are open from 11am to 6pm Saturday, Sunday and Monday for the President's Day Holiday! All Hail Thomas Jefferson! Impeach Bush!

Q: So what is there to do before/after the ceremony?A: If you've never communed with the redwoods, visit Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, just minutes up the road! Or enjoy one of Santa Cruz's fine restaurants (Bob loved the Golden Buddha in Soquel, for instance). Click here to search for more activities in Santa Cruz.

165 comments:

I cannot attend, but I want to do SOMETHING! I'll see what I can put together. I never met him, but I miss him like an amputated limb... my favorite writer since 1979 and one of the most inspiring people on the planet.

Why not get a group of people you know, in what ever city or country you're in and have your own meme-orial. All that energy being sent from all over the world would be a spectacular "send-off" for RAW! I think the idea of a worldwide group ritual/party in his honor; all going on simultaneously, would be a great way to say our final good-byes.

Its would be cool to encounter folks who have been inspired by RAW in one concentrated place.

I personaly hope his death will trigger a 'Jumping Jesus'. Like with sombunall genius artist, they get props AFTER they die.

Maybe just how some kind of shmuck movie producer stepped into comic book store and discovered the world of Super-Heros could be a movie goldmine (+ sequels). Maybe, just maybe, someone will discover and fund a movie project of RAW's prolific work.

Everybody going to this Meme-Orial, enjoy yourselves. As well as the folks who couldn't. This is an interesting time.

At the risk of seeming vulgar, I have a few thoughts on RAW collected at:

http://tcsf.blogdrive.com/archive/43.html

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Robert Anton Wilson Is Dead, & I Don't Feel So Good Myself

Notable agnostic superhero and uncategorizable whatever, Robert Anton Wilson died early in the morning, January 11th of this month. It's all over the net, so I'll spare you a repetition of the details. (Google may not be your friend, but it's a useful ally.)

Regarding the disposal of his corpse, it is rumored that he had requested that it be cremated and thrown on Pat Robertson. Naturally, this is profoundly desirable; one imagines an effect like sprinkling holy water on a demon or vampire. More to the point, this wish is utterly typical of him.

Like a carny, RAW bore a clownish facade behind which hid an utterly uncontrived and calculating rationality - one completely unhobbled by conventionality or any mewling desire for respectability.

RAW always seemed like a living invitation to the coolest party imaginable, and the best part was that the party, like God (or the Conspiracy), was everywhere & always, tho unperceived by the vulgar. In his outstreched hand was the Golden Ticket, and all one had to do to get it was - well, Get It. And few did.

I live in Brussels, and it would be nice to DO something here. I checked out how much a trip to the Meme-Orial would cost me, and sadly it's way too much (and a 15 hour flight is not really my idea of fun either).Are there people who'd like to do a RAW thing in Europe (possibly even on the 18th?)? I set up a blog to gather European Discordians interested in doing something for big Bob, just post something at http://reverendclarry.blogspot.com/ and let's get this going!

The RAW Memorial is shaping up to be the Event of the Century of the Decade! We're coming from as far away as Canada, Norway and some foreign country called New Jersey. Colorado? Yes. Oregon? Yes. Arizona, New Mexico, New York, hell yes! Midwest? You betcha! The Los Angeles contingent will represent in force, yo! Hurry, hurry, make your plans. Tickets only available until February 1st. Watch this space for updates!

First, for those coming to the official Meme-Orial: there are other local Discordian events this weekend near Santa Cruz!

Come to PantheaCon - Pantheacon.org - a pagan convention in San Jose, CA. There are two Discordian rituals, two RAW memorials, and one Discordian presentation. Contact me at stmae@discordian.com for details.

ALSO, if you are coming from far away and need crash space, get in touch with me. I can't promise anything, but I'll try to help. Every year I run KallistiCon which is essentially like having 20 Discordian houseguests for a weekend, so I am somewhat accustomed to this.

Second, anyone else doing a RAW Memorial should contact the people at RAWRemembered - http://rawremembered.blogspot.com/ because they're posting it all and getting people in touch with locals. There's an event in Toronto and one in Vancouver that we know about for sure, and anyone else wanting to do something should be in touch there.

UPDATE: The Official Meme-Orial is round, rotating and Cosmic! The SanFrancisco contingent has, at this moment, eclipsed the LosAngeles contingent and the guest list grows! Anyone reading this can help spread the word by reposting the announcement at other places around the web or by forwarding it in the email to friends. Don't forget to send photos in the email if you would like them to be part of the video display the day of the event! Thanks for all the great input thus far and Keep the Lasagna Flying! All Hail Eris! All Hail RAW!

Hello all! could someone please email me with some more information about how to purchase tickets? I've tried several times with no avail. Is there an email or phone number I can call. I'm trying my best to get to the memorial!! email me please! ty519@hotmail.com thanks!

as I can't make it there.. I got an Idea...I invite all those who are members on deviantArt community to join a kind of competition to create all kind of art related to RAW and topics he always talked about.

I am flying in to San Francisco from Memphis and am hoping to find some other attendee(s) in the SF area who might be looking for a ride to Santa Cruz...bus tickets are cheap but there are not many available and I'd hate to spend half the weekend waiting on a bus or have to leave anything early.

Anyone who could offer assistance would be a great help as it'll cost me $200 to rent a car for the weekend. I'm hoping to spend Monday in Napa if that interests anyone. All I ask is maybe a bit a help with gas costs as I already have the car and 4 extra seats.

If you are interested, email me at

tylermcninch@yahoo.com

before the 18th. I'll be at the SF airport Saturday at 12:30 P.M. and I am leaving Tuesday at 10:45 P.M.

On a completely different topic, the last Chumbawamba album has a song called "By and By" about the framed and executed IWW activist Joe Hill, but I've been listening to it recently and thinking of Bob. It's a beautiful song (nothing like Tubthumping, if that's all you know about the band). The lyrics are:By & By -Don't waste the days when I'm dead and I'm goneWind up the clocks, ring around, carry onDon't gather flowers, dry your eyes, call your friendsFor all I sang was a start, not an end.

Catch your breath, feel the life in your bonesEnjoy what's to come, not the things that we've done.Save all your prayers, take the pain and the hurtAdd your chorus to my verse

By and by, by and byForget that glorious land above the skyDon't you cry, don't you cryBy and by

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last nightAlive as you and meSays I, "But Joe, you're ten years dead""I never died," said he.

By and by, by and byForget that glorious land above the skyDon't you cry, don't you cryBy and by

Is anyone going to attend RAW's send-off from the Eugene/Springfield area? I"d really like to go, but have limited means (meaning I can cop my percentage of the gas-money and cover my lodging, but the price of travel for just myself could deny me). I can't imagine what my life would be like (nor do I care to bother) without his words of wisdom. I lived in a much smaller universe before you entered my life Bob! As such, I'd like to be there to pay my respects to a being whom I owe so much!

come to Santa Cruz... the weather is beautiful.. the amusement park will be open.... ocean.. cliffs.. lots of stuff to do.. and a concentration of people who have been influences by Mr. Wilson so.. it'll be an experience you'll never forget and it's in a great small city with fun stuff to do.. ( plus the panthea con (discordian society conventions.. it's pretty big ) is taking place over the same weekend in near by San Jose )

Dear Bob,I often dreamed of hanging out with you for a day or something.Now you're gone on. can't hardly see the keyboard for tears and sorrow does shake my brow.Without reading your sex and drugs books when I was young I would not be writing this.Hope to meet you later in that land of love.Joe

Hi. I've just been informed that my house will be the site of the memorial in Kalamazoo, MI (halfway between Detroit and Chicago). As my schedule is VERY busy, I won't be keeping track of many of the details, but I do wnat to set up a display of some of the best of the original art from the ILL! comic. Maybe I can convince the Wizard World Chicago folks to have a remembrance this summer too?

I had not visited the RAW site in a while and had not heard of his condition or his subsequent transformation. I mourn that he is gone from this reality. May he give the next one a royal mind fuck as well! As I was reading this today (Feb 09 2007) I realized I had started reading Cosmic Trigger Vol1, (which I had bought a couple of months ago) about the same time he left us (give or take a day). Synchronicity is alive and well! ...or maybe my memory is full of shit who can tell.

London memorial event is go!!! It will be on in Shoreditch, East London - full details tomorrow. Please send me an email if you're interested in coming along from around 5:30 to 10:30, so I can get an idea of numbers.

Shortly after Robert Anton Wilson's death was announced, Xaos and I were discussing his rumored desire to be flung at Pat Roberston, post-mortem, and she made a monumental suggestion, which we then worked up into what I think is the Best Thing Ever. It is like the ash-flinging above-referenced in that, of course, it is nothing anyone would ever actually do, but it is pleasant to contemplate.

The fantasy (not suggestion) is this: to mail ashes to someone you do not know, being careful, of course, not to include a return address, and enclosing an embossed certificate of authenticity stating that they are the lucky recipient of one of only 23 randomly-distributed packets of the cremated remains of Robert Anton Wilson (bio. and obit. appended) and that they are encouraged to make appropriate use of these.

If several hundred people mailed several dozen of these, each, some kind of fucked-up Hundredth Monkey effect would no doubt kick in and immanentize the eschaton or something.

Given the current repressive environment, wherein Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke (a.k.a., some asshole cop) recently said in re: Boston's recent spaz attack over the Aqua Teen Lite-Brites: "Hoaxes are a tremendous burden on local law enforcement and counter-terrorism resources and there's absolutely no place for them in a post-9/11 world," I suppose we should all just shut the fuck up and not even try, so: PLEASE, DON'T ACTUALLY DO THIS. Get it? As for me, I will resume sliding into the vacuity of depression and wistfully regret a world with no room for hoaxes. If "Bigfoot" were still alive, (look it up) I suppose they'd jail his ass, too.

Wasn't quite sure where to post this, but can anyone out there help me out with a ride down to the farewell party? I have my ticket, and did have a rather sweet ride down there, but it seems as though he's not gonna be able to take me at the last minute! :-( Can anyone out there help me out? As dearly and deeply as Bob's works touched me, I hate the thought of not being able to make it down...I could pay for gas, and make really great company. If ya can help, email me at ankhgoddess@gmail.com Thanks!

Someone contacted me and said that I'd forgotten to put where I'm from when asking for the ride...I'd be comming down from Eugene, Oregon, but could, alternatively, take a train down to some point closer to the event (a town in southern Oregon, or some such thing) and ride with ya from there, since riding with friends always makes great company, and it'd still be nonetheless cheaper! Either way, I know it's last minute, but if anyone out there can help out, I'd be soooo forever grateful! Thanks!

I was walking around Glasgow's Queens's park this afternoon in lovely weather. In the woods at the top I passed a solitary man in a large "23" t-shirt. It only struck me now that its RAW's memorial day today. Wish I could be there and hope it's a blast.Hail Eris!All Hail Bob!!!!

We, few in number but large in spirit(s), woke the great man well and good in London. Hope many others did the same where they were and his spirit got no rest this night. Goodbye Bob, you'll always be with us.